Abel to Yzerman

It's been a long time since I've seen the Wings dominated like they were opening night. At one point the shot totals were just obscene...like 24 to 4. The Wings special teams were so bad that we'd forgotten about our complaints from years past about Whiskey or William Tell on the point. Those memories were glorious compared to what the Blues wrought two Saturdays ago.

This is a rivalry. It has all the ingredients. A hungry young upstart team, built through the draft as a result of consistent shit play over a number of years. A veteran dynasty man feel are on the downslope. The coaches are friends but highly competitive. Mike Babcock would probably shoot Ken Hitchcock and claim a hunting mis-identification. Hitchcock would definitely and literally eat Mike Babcock and make no excuses other than simple hunger.

There is animosity between the fan bases. St. Louis fans, the bitter little bitches, despise us. They honestly and genuinely hate every one of us. That's understandable because their team hasn't beaten ours in anything meaningful since 1991. That bothers them. They've never had our respect, as a franchise. We admire their team now, but never the fans themselves. Konstantinov jokes just don't endear us to their kind of people.

By and large, the Blues fans we've seen are scum. I'm not judging. I'm just dealing in truth. I'm sorry. And because they're scum, we enjoy their pain here at A2Y.

Unfortunately, though, the odds of dealing that kind of pain over the next two weeks are not good. Unfortunately, based on last year's records, comparative playoff success, the opening night fiasco...the Blues are just better right now. And that's ok. But the dynamic must change. With each game, it must.

And because we're talking about the Wings and the Blues, it will. Baby Jesus says so. The gap that was so obvious on opening night must close, and so it shall.

The Wings are playing better. The Blues are very good. The Wing defense is not as bad as we thought. The Blues are still very good. Jimmy Howard is playing as well as any goalie in hockey. The Blues goaltenders are good, but not better. They're young and hungry. The Wings are getting younger and remain savvy.

And they dislike each other. Which is nice and will get nicer because it's gonna happen three more times in like the next three weeks.

It's a Live Blog, bitches. It's time to see if these guys really hate losing like we hope they do.

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that. Your suggestions and critiques are welcome: wphoulihan@gmail.com